Week 10: Halloween & Día de los Muertos

Here are the topics for the week:

Language Arts:  The letter of the week is /n/.  They will learn how to add details to their writing such as colors, size, and other attributes. We will work on describing animals. The sight word of the week is "ella."

Math:  We will  do some Halloween related math activities.

Color:  The color of the week is rosado o rosa/pink.

SLD: Students will learn about Día de los Muertos and will practice writing words with sentence frames previously learned.

NGSS: We will discuss the flooding model that we observed to figure out why one school is flooding and not the other, even though both got the same amount of rain. We will talk about how we could change the design of the playground.

Home-School Connection Projects

Instructions for the Giving Thanks project will go out on Wednesday. They can also be found in the homework section of this blog if you want to get a head start already.

Home-School Connection projects are a great way for you to work with your child on a creative project.  During the process, you also learn about what they have learned in Spanish.  Students should use what they have already practiced in class to complete the three sentences.  Please make the sentences as simple as possible by using the sentence frames that I provided.  If you are not sure if something makes sense when translated, I am happy to look over it before the presentation date. Remember that these projects are open-ended for a reason and it is always a joy to see the diversity. 

These presentations offer opportunities to develop 21st century skills such as communication, collaboration, creativity, innovation, digital citizenship, etc. (These skills are on the current Common Core aligned report card)

Google Slides

I no longer have Powerpoint software, so please use Google Slides if you want to make a slide presentation. It's free! You just need to share it to my email. Here are some examples: Connor's Slides, Reese's Thankful Project

Prezi

Here is a how-to video from youtube that explains how to make a prezi.  There is also a tutorial on the website: www.prezi.com.  The easiest way to make one is to use a pre-made template and just add text and pictures to it.

Here is a link to some Prezi's from past years: Brynlie's Thanksgiving Project; Parker's Thanksgiving Project; Gabriel's Thanksgiving Project

**I changed the instructions slightly from previous years, so please follow the most current guidelines.

You can use a combination of text, pictures, and video to make a presentation.

*There are lots of other ways to present, and if you have any other ideas, please share :)  If you choose to use one of these resources.

Sharing the project with me:   Click the share icon (it's a square with an arrow coming out of it) and share it via email to pbarcellos@lsusd.net.  You can also share bigger files through dropbox and Drive.

How to involve your child in a tech project?

1) Let them type the words themselves.  They may need a lesson on how to put spaces, periods, and capital letters.

2) Let your child pick the template, font colors, pictures, videos etc.

3) When it's done, have your child practice presenting it by click on the arrows and navigating through the presentation.

Arts and Crafts: 

Week 9: Red Ribbon Week

 

 

 It's RED RIBBON WEEK!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Halloween

We will have a parade in the morning on the 31st--it usually starts around 8:40am.  Students are encouraged to wear their costumes, but may bring a change of clothing if they would like to change out of their costumes after the parade.  It's also a great idea to wear clothes underneath the costume so they can easily take the costume off. No masks, weapons, gorey makeup, or anything that could be highly distracting are allowed.

Altar

The altar is ready to put your items for Día de los Muertos. Thank you to Sara Sprecco who put it together.

If there is no death to talk about, please email me. In the past, I've had kids show the class a family picture and they simply introduce the people in their family. Ex. This is my brother _____. Este es mi hermano ____.

Topics for the week:

Language Arts:  We will be reviewing the letters and syllables that we have learned so far: s, t, l, m, p, and the five vowels.  We will also be emphasizing the sight words we have learned so far because they will be assessed for report cards starting in November.

Math:  We will be comparing and decomposing numbers to 10. Also, they will be counting and writing numbers 8, 9, and 10.

Color:  The color of the week is negro/black.

SLD:  We will be talking about insects in connection with the Wonders Language Arts curriculum. They will learn what the characteristics of insects are.

NGSS/Science: We will continue to understand why the Woodland playground is warmer than the Carver Elementary one. The kids should have gained a better understanding when they learned that darker surfaces are hotter than paler ones. How does this connect with the two elementary schools? We will then shift to talking about thunderstorms and flooding.

Week 8: Carnival Coming Up!

Carnival

With our LV Fall Carnival just around the corner here are ways you and your family can help:

-Donate baked items (send in Friday, 10/25 to Multipurpose Room)

-Send in candy & small prizes (used for booth wins)
-After school Friday 3:30-?, setting up booths, moving items

-Saturday Morning Set-Up: prepping games, prizes, etc.

-Saturday 4pm-8pm: volunteer to work in one of our booths (30mins-60mins)

-Saturday 8pm-?: Clean-Up/TearDown (need to be ready for kids on Monday!)

We all have kiddos we want to see experience the fun of the carnival, so let's team-up to enjoy a night of fun by helping out and committing to the set-up and clean-up of this event.

Here are the topics for the week:

Language Arts:  The letter of the week is /s/ pronounced 'ese'.  The sight word of the week is "es."

Math:  We will continue practicing counting, graphing, and writing numbers.  We will write numbers 6-7. They will focus on decomposing numbers equal to or less than 10.

Color:  The color of the week is Orange/Anaranjado/Naranja

SLD:  We will continue practicing family member and pet vocabulary and will use the sentence frames: Éste es mi ______./This (male) is my ______. and Ésta es mi ______./This (female) is my ____.

NGSS Science Pilot:  We will be observing and measuring how the sun affects different surfaces, dark and pale and compare their temperatures. Vocabulary: pálido/pale and oscuro/dark.

Week 7: Tools, Family and Pets

 Please check Seesaw! I will be posting photos and videos of the kids in action, especially doing some fun science activities.

 

Here are the topics for the week: 

Language Arts: The letter of the week is L pronounced ‘ele.’ The sight word of the week is “un” which means “the.”

Math: I will introduce the kids to number bonds. They will decompose and compose numbers into two parts. For example, 5 can be composed of 1 and 4 or 2 and 3. They will also explore rectangles and solve number stories/word problems.

Color: the color of the week is morado/purple.

SLD: for the first part of the week, they will learn about tools and instruments that we use to help us. They will use the sentence frame: Yo uso ____./I use _____. They will also learn about family members and pets using the sentence frame Éste or Ésta es mi ______. /This is my ____. Este is used for masculine and esta is used for feminine words, things, or people.

NGSS Science Pilot: Students will compare the temperature of the surfaces under the shade and in direct sunlight. They will also use a lamp model to measure and compare the temperatures of the surface when light hits it for different amounts of time. Important vocabulary words to know are: oscuro/dark, pálido/pale or light, modelo/model, superfície/surface.

Week 6: The Five Senses and Sub on Thurs-Fri

 I will have a sub on both Thursday and Friday. The sub will be Kristin Henderson again. I will be at a training to become a mentor to other teachers. Art is Friday so please help if you can!

 

Here are our topics for the week:

Language Arts:  The letter of the week is 't' pronounced "te." Students will practice writing the letter as well as learn many vocabulary words that begin with 't.' The sight word is "el/the."

Math:  Students will learn about circles.  They will continue to practice and hopefully master counting and writing the numbers 0-5 before we move onto larger numbers.

Color:  The color of the week is brown/café or marrón.

SLD/Science:  Los Cinco Sentidos/The Five Senses. Students will participate in some fun activities in which they will use their five senses to describe objects.  They will learn adjectives such as ácido/sour, suave/soft, duro/hard, dulce/sweet, áspero/bumpy.  They will make a book with something they will glue on each page the represents each sense.  They will review some of their body parts as well as we go through which parts we use to experience each of the senses.

NGSS Science Pilot: The kids will use lamps as models to represent the sun. They will observe how the light/heat affects the temperatures of various surfaces. They will need to know what a modelo/model is.

Week 5: Science Pilot, Buddies, Early Release Day and Picture Day

Reminders and Upcoming Events

1) Please sign up for the Carnival.  We are in need of volunteers and donations for the basket.
2) If you are interested in scholastic books, click the link on my blog--ordering is really easy online.  Plus, we get class bonus points and shipping is free.
3) Picture Day is Thursday, Sept. 26. You should have received information about it on Friday. Kindergarten usually goes first thing in the morning.
4) Friday is an early release day. Students are out at 12:15pm. They will still have lunch as usual.

5th Grade Buddies

Students were paired up with their 5th grade buddies two weeks ago. Sra. Mello's class, who are bilingual students from the Spanish Immersion Program, will work with the kindergarteners once a week. They will come every Wednesday after recess. They will keep these same buddies until the end of the Trimester and we will change buddies once each trimester.

These are the projects they will work on with the kindergarteners throughout the year:

1) Technology projects:  Book Creator, iMovie's, PicCollage, Google Slides, Google Classroom

2) Digital Citizenship Lessons about using the internet and technology properly

3) English practice: reading books in English, Quizlet, etc.
4) NGSS science lessons-planning and carrying out investigations

It's nice from them to have a buddy who can help them work on things one-on-one. They can help with reading, writing, and art. Plus, they can do everything in both English and Spanish.

Here are the topics for the week:

Language Arts:  The letter of the week is /p/ pronounced "pe"  We will be learning about words that begin with /p/ and begin reading the syllables pa, pe, pi, po, pu.  The focus sight words are "veo" and "tengo." They will also learn about family and we will talk about things we do with family.

Math:  We will be writing and counting numbers 1-5 and learn about triangles. We will cut out triangles from magazines.

Color:  The color of the week is green/verde.

SLD:  Students will be learning about lots of different body parts that are categorized into three groups:  parts of the head (face, hair, etc.), exterior parts (limbs, torso, etc.), and interior parts (organs, bones, etc.).  At the end of the week, they will label a human body with the parts they learned.

Science NGSS Pilot: We will begin our pilot curriculum called Amplify. The kids will discuss how scientists study weather and what they already know about weather. Without telling them what to think and guiding them too much, please review the vocabulary so they have a better understanding of the lesson considering the language barrier may pose a challenge.

They will work on the following vocabulary words:

cientîfico/scientist
clima/weather
predecir/predict
temperatura/temperature
soleado/sunny
nuboso/cloudy
ventoso/windy
nevoso/snowy
lluvioso/rainy

* We make a lot of books and flip-books in class.  These are great resources to improve reading and vocabulary development. Please store them in a book bag and give your child some time every night to practice them.  It is okay if they don't know every word.

Week 4: Start of Work Stations

Upcoming Events

Please support our PTA by participation in our fundraiser. I will be handing out monkey keychains to kids that turn in the little tickets. Our class goal is 280 items sold. We can do it!!

Also, our class has a basket for the Fall Carnival. You  should have received a letter from the room parent, Bonnie Baum. She asked for donations. I am currently accepting them. Thanks!

Picture Day is Thursday, September 26th. We go first thing in the morning.

Work Stations:  How you can help

Some kids have gotten some practice with the computers and we have started exploring the iPads. We are going to begin “work stations.”  If you have access to Quizlet  at home, it is helpful to practice with your child how to use a mouse, get in and out of websites, and how to navigate a website such as scrolling up and down.  We will explore sites and apps such as the ones on the Symbaloo webmix, Quizlet, Onlinefreespanish.com.

My plan is to have work stations every Thursday and Friday and offer the students time to work on some of these activities as a "may-do" once they finish their work on a daily basis.  During this time, it is important that students can work independently at their station and stay on task while I work with small groups on guided reading and phonics practice.  Please talk to your child about these expectations and that if they need something that no other child can assist them with, they need to stand on the taped X by the U-table until I address them.  This helps minimize interruptions during small group time.

Yo puedo/I can:

We will go over the “I can” or “Yo puedo” options for each station.  They have a choice of a few different activities that share the same objective.  For example, there are a few different ways to practice handwriting in that station, as demonstrated on the cards. There are also signs around the room with pictures demonstrating their options.  In addition, certain areas around the room have hanging signs that designate where they can do that station.  Some stations will require them to grab the materials from the library area and move them to the station table.

Our Stations:  Handwriting, Alphabet/Words, Library, Pocket Chart, iPads, Puzzles, Computers (Symbaloo Edu), Big Books, With the Teacher

How it works:

They will rotate twice each day on Thursday and Friday.  For each station period (about 12-15 minutes) they will be working on that station only. They will do the station in the blue section first and then the green section (refer to the chart above). When they rotate, they will work on the next station.  They may not do every station every week, but they will meet with me in small reading groups at least one day a week.  It is okay if they don’t get to do a particular station one week, because they may get the chance to do it the following week or week after.  There is a chart in the room with their pictures next to their partner, and the station cards to the right.  They will always move to different stations in pairs (with their partner). Blue is the first station and green is the second station.

Why am I giving you so much information about this?

 I have found that when parents talk to their kids in English and explain procedures and expectations, it makes receiving the same instructions in Spanish so much more understandable.  This helps the transitions run much more smoothly.  Thanks for your participation in the process.

These are the plans for the week:

Language Arts:  The letter of the week is /m/, pronounced 'eme.' Now that the students have learned the five vowel sounds, we will be blending /m/ to make the syllables ma, me, mi, mo, mo.  Students will learn words that begin with /m/ and do various activities to practice writing and reading words with this letter.

Math:  We will learn to count and write numbers 3-5 as well as describe shapes, decompose numbers in groups, etc.

Color:  The color of the week is blue/azul.

SLD:  Students will be learning about different actions/verbs.  They will describe which things they like to do at home, at school, and at the playground.  They will use the sentence frame:  Yo puedo _______. / I can ______.  Ex.  Yo puedo dibujar./ I can draw.